You can no longer see lion-tailed macaques at Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo.

Most of the monkeys, once one of the zoo's star attractions, are gone after being sent to other zoos. The few that remain are no longer on display and will eventually be shipped out as well.

The zoo was once renowned for its lion-tailed macaque breeding program but its old monkey house isn't up to standards any more.

“They were just wonderful to watch. I mean, you just got to how they took care of each other, how they hung out with each other," said anthropologist and primatologist Susan Hornshaw, who has studied the monkeys.

"You also got to see when they disagreed with each other and how they handled that without aggression — without physical aggression.

“It was an amazing group not just for academic researchers but for people who would go to the zoo and watch a social group, a living, alive, amazing social group that took great care of their infants, taught them how to walk.”